Flight Booked

Hi

Not sure how to start this - never done anything like this before.

I'm 53 - worked my last shift for Police Scotland on 18 March 2020 - retired officially on 3 April.  Master plan was to do lots of things - travel, get a motorhome, travel, watch rugby, do a bit of voluntary work - the usual stuff.  Then 5 days in to my blissful retirement, we were locked down.  Fortunately, I'd kind of seen what was coming and managed to get a delivery job with The Buffalo Farm in Kirkcaldy so wasn't to be totally laid off.

I'd always hankered to do a bit of voluntary work - I'd always thought it would be teaching English or coaching football on a beach in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos or maybe in Malawi where so many other Scots are drawn to.

Many of you will know my mate and former colleague Dave Hamilton, currently Chairman of the Scottish Police Federation.  He worked with Edinburgh Direct Aid during the conflict in the Balkans and pre-Covid holidays to Croatia - Dubrovnik in particular, hit a nerve with me.  At that time, I was a serving officer in the Royal Navy - a major part of NATO and we let these horrors happen on our watch.


Fast forward - 30 odd years

I see that he's in Poland - Dave's Blog doing a recce for EDA - I contact him and suggest that I'd be willing to help do something if I can.  He puts me in touch with Siobahn's Trust and a former Naval officer who I've not met as yet David Pond - David Pond's Blog

A couple of Whatsapp messages / emails sent to them both offering my services

Long and short of it - I fly to Krakow on 11 April - all being well, I'll help to look after some refugees from Ukraine and hopefully help to drive them back to the UK to meet up with their sponsor families - or whatever else I can do when I'm there.  I need to do this before I'm too old.

Not looking for money for me - I'm lucky enough to be able to self fund the trip but I'll put up links for donations in a future blog

Thanks for taking the time to read this

GJL



Location: Kinross KY13, UK

Comments

  1. Unknown30 March 2022 at 22:25

    Fantastic! I look forward to following your adventures. God speed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown11 April 2022 at 11:21

    Good on you Grant! Wishing you all the best in helping out these poor people and getting them to the UK .
    PS Coaching football?? You know nothing about football!!
    Proudy

    ReplyDelete

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